This proposal is to establish a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Science Center at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science campus of the University of Miami. The Center application is the collaborative effort of 4 faculty from the marine campus, and 5 faculty from the medical campus of the University. The primary theme of the proposed Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center will be development and use of several marine organisms as model systems for the investigations of how selected bioactive compounds in the marine environment might affect the health of humans. This theme will have several principal components: mechanisms of action of marine toxins of significance as human disease agents, mechanisms of chemical and biological carcinogenesis, neurophysiological responses to ischemia and marine toxins, and alterations in immune system function produced by agents in the marine environment. Marine animal model systems have already been identified and characterized in the laboratories for use in each of these components. there is extensive overlap in the research objectives involved in the programs already underway and those planned to be integral parts of the Center. The links between these components originate from the use of common tools, such as marine toxins, to dissect these systems at the functional and molecular levels. As Core support, the following are proposed as Center Units: (1) Administration, (2) Toxin Supply, (3) Fish Tissue Culture, (4) Fish Cancer and Immunology, (5) Electrophysiology, (6) Metabolic Neurophysiology, (7) Metabolism and Analytical Biochemistry, (8) Electron Microscopy, (9) Biostatistics, (10) Fish and Shellfish Hatchery, and (11) Pilot Studies. Each component will improve collaboration between the nine Center Principal Investigators. The University of Miami has provided a strong cost-share component essential to achieving Center goals, and includes post-doctoral support, cost-sharing in equipment and supplies, and travel funds for External Advisory Committee members.